Martin Professional's M1 is an all-in-one lighting control unit. It is equipped with a dual-core processor for a responsive user interface, even if hundreds of playbacks and effects are activated simultaneously. Compact enough to be checked in as luggage at the airport, the M1's surface has fewer buttons and options, with information made available through a series of contextual windows. Operators can use 4 encoders, a touchscreen, trackball or direct value entry via the keypad to control fixture parameters.
The M1 offers 46 direct access surface playbacks and hundreds more through the touchscreen. The 46 playbacks on the surface are divided into three sections – Playback, Submaster and User keys.
The main Playback section offers 10 x 60mm fader playbacks equipped with 4 buttons. Each of the buttons can be assigned to a long list of functionalities such as Go, Flash+Go, Pause, Release, and so on. The M1 offers 100 banks of 10 playbacks.
The Submaster section offers 24 additional playbacks, 12 with 40mm faders and flash buttons and 12 with flash buttons only. Up to 100 banks of 24 playbacks, submasters, overrides or inhibitives can be assigned and controlled simultaneously.
The same cuelist can be assigned to several playback or submaster faders and each assignment can have its own set of options. This allows, for example, for mapping of a cuelist over two or more submaster buttons. In addition to their multi-purpose functions, the 12 user keys can be used to control cuelists.
The high-resolution 16:9 touchscreen is mounted on a flip-hinge system that can be adjusted to be completely in line with the surface angle of the M1 so the screen is never in the way when programming. The M1 is also equipped with an external monitor connection via VGA or DVI with a top resolution of 3840 x 1024. Using a Matrox TrippleHead2Go, the number of external screens can be extended by three.
The M1 can be remotely controlled via tools that are available at no extra cost such as the iPhone MaxRemote, a native iPhone application that allows quick access to most programming functions of the system, and Maxxyz Manager, which offers Internet, Serial and Telnet remote options as well as scheduled operation via calendar and time-of-day rules.
The M1 has no functional network restrictions and can be fully integrated with other Martin consoles and Martin Maxedia media servers. It supports the CITP thumbnail protocol for media servers and is also part of the Martin's MaxNet protocol. The networking system allows tracking backup between consoles and remote access with the iPhone application.
The M1's user interface and structure allows for video and lighting integration. With CITP protocol, the M1 can display all video and cue content through a series of thumbnails.
More information is available at www.martin.com/marketing/files/M1_Reference_Guide_Rev_E.pdf and www.martin.com .
